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HEC asked to verify degrees of 840 MPs
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
NA body takes notice of misappropriations in NUML
By Usman Manzoor
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday handed over degrees of 840 parliamentarians out of 1170 to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Education for their verification from the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
The remaining 330 degrees will be submitted to the committee as soon as the returning officers provide them, the ECP assured the committee. The HEC will complete the verification of the degrees within four months and submit its report to the committee, led by Abid Sher Ali of the PML-N.
The committee, in another major development, directed the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), a GHQ-funded university, to clarify the status of the chairman of the board of governors (BoG), and issue a notification mentioning clearly the name of the president of Pakistan as the chairman and remove the name of the chief of Army staff as the BoG chairman. The name of the COAS is being carried since the Musharraf era, when he was occupying both the offices of the president and the Army chief.
Abid Sher Ali, while talking to The News after the meeting, said the NUML administration was deceiving the people that the COAS was the chairman of its BoG because of Musharraf era practice and they were continuing with it. He said that the committee will hold next meeting in the NUML and will ask the auditor general to attend the meeting so that financial embezzlements were also clarified.
MNAs Maimoona Hashmi, Justice (retd) Fakhr-un-Nisa Khokar, Nuzhat Sadiq, Rubina Sadat Qaimkhani, and Rana Afzaal Hussain attended the special meeting of the NA panel on Tuesday.
Dr Sohail Naqvi, executive director of the HEC, told the committee that the commission would get the degrees of the MNAs, senators, and the MPAs verified within four weeks and submit its report to the committee. Secretary ECP Ishtiaq Ahmad told the committee members that the returning officers have been asked to provide the degrees of the rest of 330 parliamentarians and soon those degrees would also be submitted for verification.
The NA body took strong exception to the affairs of the NUML and the way it was being governed for the last decade. Interestingly, the NUML administration, mostly retired army officers, had been mentioning that the COAS was the BoG chairman, while according to the books it has to be the president of Pakistan. NUML Rector Brig (retd) Aziz Ahmad Khan told the committee that Pervez Musharraf was the president and simultaneously was occupying the post of the COAS, so since then the name of the COAS was being taken as the BoG chairman.
The committee ordered the rector to ensure the implementation of the NUML ordinance in letter and spirit and issue a notification of president of Pakistan being the BoG chairman. The committee also emphasised on clear status of the NUML by declaring it a public sector university; because it draws its budget from the HEC and the Ministry of Education.
The committee unanimously condemned the thrashing incident at NUML, in which a retired Brigadier Obaidullah Ranjha manhandled a professor Tahir Naeem Malik. The committee asked the rector to withdraw the show-cause notice issued to Tahir Naeem Malik, who was continuously been harassed and threatened by the NUML administration. A written reply shall be tendered by the rector to bring an end to the continuation of victimisation policy.
The NA panel also took serious notice of the financial embezzlements and violations of rules in appointing the administrative and academic staff. Moreover, the committee asked the NUML administration to come prepared in the next meeting and produce the documents of all appointments to ascertain the truth of corruption and irregularities in the university. Detail of all audit paras against the NUML and annual income/expenditure detail had also been sought by the committee.
The committee also took notice of questionable appointments at the Agriculture University Faisalabad and the students tussle in the Islamia University Bahawalpur. The committee decided to write a letter to the chief minister Punjab to direct the police to take action against those involved in riots in the universities.
Earlier
Abid Sher acts to verify all degrees, asks EC for copies
Saturday, May 15, 2010
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: Chairman National Assemblys Committee on Education Abid Sher Ali formally sought from the Election Commission of Pakistan on Friday the degrees of all the MNAs, senators and MPAs to get them verified so that cheaters could be identified and proceeded against.
The move, which is expected to be strongly opposed from within parliament and by certain political parties, if succeeds, would be a giant leap towards self-accountability of the political elite of the country.
Abid Sher Ali, who has already convened a meeting of the NA Standing Committee on Education on May 24 and 25 to discuss the issue, on Friday sent a formal request to Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Hamid Ali Mirza with the request that the degrees of all the members of the National Assembly, the Senate and the provincial assemblies might be sent to the Standing Committee on Education for onward transmission to the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for verification.
I am confident that this step will decide the existing controversy once and for all and help in strengthening the real democratic system of the country, wrote Abid Sher Ali, whose own party, the PML-N, interestingly, has awarded party ticket for by-polls to two candidates, who have fake degrees.
Even otherwise, it is generally believed that the majority of the fake degree holders belong to the PML-N although the ruling PPP is at the receiving end for betting on Jamshed Dasti and Nazir Jut two who stood exposed before the Supreme Court for defrauding the people of their constituencies and the system by contesting the Feb 18, 2008 elections on fake degrees.
In his letter, the chairman NA Committee on Education said, If some elected representatives can lie their way into the legislature, why anybody should believe anything they say on the floor of our houses of parliament.
A public representative is supposed to be a role model for the society. But, unfortunately, things are not as they should be, especially in our part of the world. The people have strong resentment against some of the public representatives who were elected as members of parliament on fake educational documents.
He added: It should be a matter of deep concern for those who are enjoying powers in this part of the world. The presence of fake degree holders in parliament is not less than a cruel joke with the Constitution and the people of this country as well. In fact, such parliamentarians betrayed and deceived their voters. Some black sheep are going to defame the sanctity of parliament. There is a need to counter the nefarious motives of such opportunists so that we may be able to provide an honest and trustworthy leadership for the generations to come.
The situation merits to be considered seriously and taken some bold and unprecedented steps for cleansing parliament in the larger interest of country, the letter said.The committee would refer these degrees of all the MPs to the Higher Education Commission to verify as to who amongst the parliamentarians had used fake degrees to reach parliament.
It is learnt that Abid Sher Ali did not consult his party before launching his campaign against the fake degrees. Abid, who was an unknown Leaguer till recently, rose to fame after he took up the issue of the jacking up of the FSc marks of then de facto Chief Justice Dogars daughter in the committee, despite the opposition of the present regime and in spite of Dogar courts stay order issued to prevent the NA committee from proceeding in this case.
Usman Manzoor adds: After Abid Sher Ali, now the civil society has also come forth against the fake degree holders sitting in parliament or contesting the by-polls and has decided to organise protests to highlight the essence of morality among the parliamentarians, ones who lead the country.
Activists of civil society will be once again seen on the streets of Islamabad on Saturday evening in front of the Islamabad Press Club, this time holding placards and banners against those who hold fake degrees and yet succeeded to win party tickets in by-elections.
Arshad Abbasi, one of the active members of the civil society, told The News that they would demand verification of degrees of all MNAs, senators and MPAs so that in future parliament was saved from any humiliation.
It is not only the humiliation of parliament or any particular political party but also belittling of 160 million people who they represent, Arshad said. He mentioned that the demands of civil society are simple those who have fake degrees do not have any room in parliament and those who have awarded them the party ticket would be condemned.
